“I’ve been in the water seven times already today. I’m so tired. I can’t… No I can’t. Send someone else please. No, I told you I’ve been already in for seven times.”
The diver looked very exhausted indeed. I didn’t know him. He was sitting beside me in Abu Dabab. It was obvious he was calling his boss at the diving center, asking for replacement.
I couldn’t tell his age. Actually I find it hard in general to determine the age of divers I meet. I see people in their late 20s, but they look like they are in their 40s. Forget the stereotypical look you find in diving magazines or in movies, of that muscly well built man. The profession does weary you out quickly. Between the daily over-exposure to nitrogen, extreme physical activities, malnutrition, the divers I encounter in general are aging, very quickly.
This is only exacerbated by bad habits. The first thing a diver does when he comes out of the water is lighting a cigarette. Many go into the water on empty stomachs. The food they eat is shit, and usually with lots of carbohydrates. No proteins, or vitamin supplements. More catastrophically I’ve seen divers going into the water while they are sick, with bad cold.
The divers’ working conditions are almost as bad as the construction workers in Egypt, and the money they make is peanuts. Most of the money goes to the diving centers, not to the divers.
Egypt’s divers are part of the working class. And they need a union.